Edelwood
by To This Day77
Summary: Wit picks up Greg, his little brother, the only thing in the world that matters to him. And he runs. As fast as he can, pushing himself over the limit. His fingers are blue and numb, he can't feel his legs, much less his feet. Branches and leaves crawl up his arms. Wirt knows: The only thing that matters is Greg.


**This is just a one-shot I guess, unless people want me to continue?**

**I don't know...**

**This is just in Wirt's view, and if he had been turning into a tree :)**

_I'm turning into a tree. An Edelwood tree to keep the woodsman's fire in the lantern, who keeps it lit to keep his daughter alive, who is trapped inside because of the Beast._

_The Beast. This is all his fault. If it wasn't for him my soft cold flesh wouldn't be hardening into bark, vines wouldn't be wrapping around my limbs, I wouldn't be coughing up leaves. And maybe even I could get home with Greg._

_No. Greg has to make it home! Hes only seven, making me twice his age. My life used to be all about my petty fourteen year old boy problems; a simple girl named Sara, my clarinet, grades, school, popularity...None of it mattered now. Because now I know that my little brother is above all of it, I just wish I had figured that out sooner._

"I've got my own problems woodsman." I_ said, tossing the poor old man the lantern. He huffed as he caught it, staring into the flame. _

_I could feel the vines twisting around my ankles but I picked up Greg and began running._

"Wirt! Put me down!" Greg complained. _His seven year old brain could make no sense of what was really going on. _

_I shivered, I felt unusually cold._ "D-Don't worry Greg. J-Just a little f-farther,"

_I was never one for running, or much physical fitness. The best mile time I could run would honestly be around eight minutes, which is not something i'm particularly proud of. _

_Every time my foot left the ground leaves and vines wrapped around my ankle, only to be snapped off when my foot collided with the ground. But the vines were getting thicker with every second, and soon they wouldn't be able to snap. I cough, twigs and pine needles coming out of my dry mouth._

_My throat is on fire, no longer accepting air into my lungs. My red hat flies off but I don't go back to retrieve it. _

"Wirt!" Greg cries, _his face full of fear, his small hands clutching his little frog close to his chest._

_I can't even talk anymore, I just focus on running._

_Then I see it. The garden wall we jumped over. _

_With a last chance of desperation, I wrap Greg in my blue cape, trying to keep the cold winter air off him._

"_W-W-Wirt!" Greg sobs, tears streaking down his face._

_I want to tell him everything is okay, that we'll be fine. But I can't tell him that for two reasons: I don't know if its true and I know I won't make it._

_I scramble over the wall, scrapping my knuckles and palms against the sharp brick. With a mighty jump, I heave myself into the pond. I break through a thin layer of frosting ice, the shards cutting the last of my remaining flesh. I can no longer breath, my face pale, my lips and fingers blue from the cold and lack of oxygen. _

_I swim with the power I don't have to the shore, pushing Greg onto the bank. I collapse beside him, halfway still in the pond. Greg doesn't move, but I somehow know hes okay._

_Suddenly I hear a mighty gush of wind, and I realize that it was the lantern going out. The bark and vines that had began slicing through my flesh dissolve. I only realize then how much utter pain i'm in. My fingers and toes so stiff I can't move them, lips and fingertips ice blue. My skin is white, a thin layer of frost forming over it. My hair is stiff, the cold freezing it. Theres gashes all over my body from running through the forrest and the tight tree bonds that once held me. Although my lungs are now free I don't have enough energy to continue to breath. _

_With a burst of energy I didn't know I had, I yell, a ear-splitting sound full of agony, sorrow, and pain. _

_My eyes began to blur as I see lights run towards me and Greg, worried voices panicking. _

_Everything goes dark. _

**-MW**


End file.
